Crop Rotation and its Importance in Agriculture

Crop rotations are at the heart of organic farming, and help organic systems to protect our environment. They involve changing the type of crop grown in one area on a regular basis. While using crop rotations might sound
old fashioned, it is a much more effective and sophisticated system than
relying on chemicals. Using chemicals to fertilize the soiloften only provides
crops with the three basic elements (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) that
they need to grow, rather than providing them with all the nutrients they need.

As well as ensuring soil nutrients
don’t get depleted, crop rotations also prevent the build up of pests and
diseases, which help organic farmers to avoid the use of pesticides. When a
farmer plants the same crop in one field year after year (known as a
mono-culture), the pests and diseases that attack the crop establish and
increase in numbers year-on-year – non-organic farmers then rely on pesticides
to deal with this. In contrast organic farmers avoid the problem by alternating
crops that are vulnerable to different pests and diseases each year, preventing
any from getting established in the same location.